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Dessert

Currant Jam, Black

A jam made from picked currants and crushed preserving sugar, boiled and simmered until it jellies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Currant Jam, Black

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jam

  1. Put the currants and sugar into a preserving pan.

  2. Bring the mixture just to a boil.

  3. Simmer for 40 minutes, stirring continuously.

Test and jar

  1. Test for doneness by placing a little on a cold plate; if it jellies, it is done.

  2. Pour into pots, let it cool, then cover.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the fruit, pectin and tartness that give the jam its flavour and body.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens the jam and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set as it thickens.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness on a cold plate. Sugar and pectin only set into a gel at the right concentration. Cooking too briefly leaves the jam runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or sticky. A cold plate cools a small sample quickly so you can judge the set.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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